Brandelin & Austin Demmel

THIS CUTE COUNTRY COUPLE HAD AN ELEGANT, RUSTIC WEDDING WITH JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF SPARKLE.

BRANDELIN AND AUSTIN WERE INTRODUCED by a mutual friend, and Brandelin swears she knew they were going to get married the first night they met. Still, they dated for a year before Austin popped the question, and even then, Brandelin wasn’t sure it was going to happen. On the couple’s first date, they went to see country artist Chris Cagle, someone they especially enjoy because the singer devotes a portion of each concert to the U.S. military, and Austin is an Infantry Officer in the Colorado Army National Guard.

Cut to one year later: They have dinner at the same restaurant as on that first night with tickets to see Cagle at the Grizzly Rose afterward. “I had a feeling it was going to happen soon,” Brandelin says. “I just thought it would have been at dinner because of all the noise at the concert. Well, the concert started and still nothing.” So they drank and danced and enjoyed the concert, and Brandelin started to think that he took her to the same restaurant before the same concert … just because.

So as Cagle gets to the section of the set when he talks about the military, Brandelin says, “I hear, ‘Second Lieutenant Demmel, have you done it yet?’ I was so confused and turned around to see Austin on one knee in front of hundreds of people. It was a night neither of us will ever forget!”

As mentioned earlier, Brandelin had been planning their wedding even before the proposal, so she met with their planner armed with a three-inch binder full of ideas, lists, possible color themes and more. “I wanted a country, rustic yet elegant and classy wedding with lots of sparkle,” she says. “We had just that.” Brandelin wore cowgirl boots, and the gentlemen wore American Flag socks (Austin opted for stars-and-stripes suspenders).

The reception was filled with special moments. The couple’s first dance was a choreographed mash-up mix. “We took nine dance lessons,” Brandelin says. The bride was also very excited to learn that the DJ they hired, Tasos Hernandez, was on “The Bachelorette.” And of course, they entered the reception to a song by, who else, Chris Cagle.

“My best memories from my wedding day,” Brandelin says, “were getting ready with the girls, putting my dress on with my matron of honor and my mom, walking down the aisle to my now husband, reading our vows and dancing the night away with family and friends.”